Well, ARRL Field Day is over for another year. Some Central Alberta amateurs operated this event from the Red Deer County EOC Amateur Radio Station. I would like to thank CAARC for encouraging me in this venture. I also thank Rod, VE6XY, and Stephen, VA6SGL, for trying to keep me grounded. And a special thank you to Brian for helping me understand the radios and correcting the aim of the HF beam antenna and for serving as Safety Officer. Ric Henderson, now Assistant County Manager of Red Deer County, found a way to let it happen. Ryan Mysko of Red Deer County served as the Red Deer County EOC member of our planning team. And a big Thank You to him for being patient with the preparations and testing and facilitating our access to the county’s radio station.

The buck stops with me for this event. Please tell me what could have been organized better.

Although we did not make a lot of contacts, several Central Alberta hams are now more familiar with the radios at the county station. We managed to make contacts with Connecticut, Alaska and Hawaii, among other places, as well as Alberta. Someone responded to our digital CQ but we were not set up to be quick enough on the reply. I also sent a CW QRL on what appeared to be a clear code frequency, someone answered, unfortunately, I was not confident enough to follow up. So we had no digital or CW contacts although we did make our presence known in both modes for a very little while on each. We will be better prepared next time.

The CAT connection between the logging program and the Kenwood TS-480HX had failed approximately one hour into Field Day. We now have to investigate the cause and figure out the resolution of this problem. This did not stop us from making contacts but provided a potential for our logging the contact in the wrong band.

I did try to send a formal NTS format message on its way to the Alberta Section manager. Maybe I started too late, about 11:15 Sunday. Using my truck mounted mobile, I asked if anyone would accept a formal message for forwarding on repeater VE6REP at least once, but I did not hear anyone accept. I did ask a couple of more times.

We did not try WinLInk because I could not make it work in pre-Field Day Trials. Winlink is not needed by itself for Field Day but it facilitates messaging which can be used to earn more points. More investigation and preparation are needed for this before the next Field Day.

Unfortunately, in all the confusion, we did not get any photographs or videos.

Ryan says that he is quite enthusiastic for this exercise to happen again. He was impressed by the way the radios had been tested and problems corrected. He is also planning to create a write-up for the Red Deer County newspaper.
Thank you to all who participated:

Ryan, “VE62B”
Rod, VE6XY
Stephen, VA6SGL
Brian, VE6CKC
Mike, VE6MIM
Sylvia, VE6SYL
Maria, VA6TFL
Darcy, VE6DWG
Helge, VE6HNO
Andre, VA6ARJ
Emily St-Hilaire

and thanks also to the local amateurs who responded on 146.490 MHz.

Here is a copy of the summary file created by our N3FJP ARRL Field Day Log. This was part of the submission to the ARRL. Note that although the stated number of simultaneous transmitters is 1, the rules allow one free VHF station to also operate.

ARRL Field Day
1. Field Day Call Used: VA6RDC GOTA Station Call:
2. Club or Group Name: Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
3. Number of Participants: 13
4. Number of transmitters in simultaneous operation: 1
5. Entry Class: Check only one.
__A. Club or non-club portable
__B. 1 or 2 person non-club group portable
_____List calls of operators:
__C. Mobile
__D. Home station commercial power
__E. Home station emergency power
X F. Emergency Operations Center
6. Check All power sources used.
__Generator
X Commercial mains
__Battery
__Solar
__Other (list)
7. ARRL / RAC Section: AB
8. Total CW QSOs: 0 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 0
9. Total Digital QSOs: 0 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points: 0
10. Total Phone QSOs: 23 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 23
11. Total QSO points: 23
12. Power Multiplier (select only one)
__5 Watts or less and Battery powered = 5
X 150 Watts or less = 2
__Over 150 Watts = 1
13. Power Multiplier: 2
14. Claimed Score: 46
15. Bonus points claimed: Please check each block as appropriate and
include required proof of points with your submission. All bonus points
will be verified at ARRL HQ and added to your score.
__100% Emergency power
X Media Publicity
__Set-up in Public Place
__Information Booth
__NTS message to ARRL SM/SEC
X W1AW Field Day Message
__Formal NTS messages handled (# 0)
__Satellite QSO completed
__Natural Power QSOs Completed
__Site Visited by invited elected official
__Site Visited by invited served agency official
__Educational Activity Bonus
__Youth Element achieved (# 0)
__GOTA Bonus (total bonus points: 0)
__Submitted using the b4h.net applet
__Social Media
__Safety Officer
Total Bonus Points Claimed: 200
16. I/We have observed all competition rules as well as all regulations for amateur radio in my/our country. My/our report is correct and true to the best of my/our knowledge. I/We agree to be bound by the decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee.
Date: 06/26/2018
Call: VA6RDC
Signature: John Allen
Address: c/o Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
Address: P.O. Box 1103
Address: Red Deer, Alberta T4N 6S5
Address: CANADA
E-Mail Address: …snipped/sja…
Operating Period: 2018/06/23 18:40 – 2018/06/24 16:05

Total Contacts by Band and Mode:
Band  CW Power Dig Power Phone Power Total %
—-      —     —–    —–  —–    —–     —–    —–    —
40       0     150     0     150        7     150       7     30
20       0     150     0     150      12    150      12     52
2         0     150     0     150       4      150       4     17

GOTA 0   150      0      150       0      150       0      0
— —– —– —– —– —– —– —
Total   0               0                 23                 23  100

18. List all callsigns of all operators and number of QSO’s completed of the GOTA Station:

Submission file created by N3FJP’s ARRL Field Day Contest Log
Version 5.8

Here is a copy of the ADIF log file created by our N3FJP ARRL Field Day Log. An alphanumeric list of stations worked by band/mode during the Field Day period based on this document was submitted to the ARRL. The 12 contacts before 2200 UTC were from the County Office EOC Radio Station. The 9 contacts after 2200 UTC were made from the temporary portable station established in Rod’s, VE6XY’s, RV camper trailer with a “balcony antenna“ clamped to its roof access ladder.

START-OF-LOG: 3.0
CREATED-BY: N3FJP’s ARRL Field Day Contest Log 5.8
CONTEST: ARRL-FIELD-DAY
CALLSIGN: VA6RDC
LOCATION: RED DEER
ARRL-SECTION: AB
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: MIXED
CATEGORY-TIME: 24-HOURS
…several lines repeating previous information snipped/sja…
QSO: 14275 PH 2018-06-23 1840 VA6RDC 1F AB   N7KE        1A EWA
QSO: 14314 PH 2018-06-23 1848 VA6RDC 1F AB   K7LED      6A WWA
QSO: 14264 PH 2018-06-23 1856 VA6RDC 1F AB   VA7RER   2A BC
QSO: 14206 PH 2018-06-23 1906 VA6RDC 1F AB   W7OTV    4A OR
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-23 1909 VA6RDC 1F AB   NF6          1E SF
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-23 1919 VA6RDC 1F AB   VE7SCC   3A BC
QSO:     144 PH 2018-06-23 1919 VA6RDC 1F AB   VE6HPY   1D AB
QSO:     144 PH 2018-06-23 1920 VA6RDC 1F AB   VA6PPZ   1D AB
QSO:     144 PH 2018-06-23 1921 VA6RDC 1F AB   VE6SNL  1D AB
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-23 1940 VA6RDC 1F AB   WL7CSJ   1F AK
QSO:     144 PH 2018-06-23 2114 VA6RDC 1F AB   VA6TNA   1C AB
QSO:  7000 PH 2018-06-23 2126 VA6RDC  1F AB   VE7CMR  3A BC
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-23 2132 VA6RDC 1F AB   N7VSS     1A EB
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-23 2137 VA6RDC 1F AB   W6YX       5F SCV
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-24 0004 VA6RDC 1F AB   W3YA       1D EPA
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 0128 VA6RDC 1F AB   W7OTV    3A OR
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-24 0351 VA6RDC 1F AB   W6HA      3A LAX
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 0413 VA6RDC 1F AB   AA7CR     2A ORG
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 0424 VA6RDC 1F AB   AA7TW    1D ID
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 0639 VA6RDC 1F AB   NH6JC     2A PAC
QSO: 14000 PH 2018-06-24 1526 VA6RDC 1F AB   VE7SS     2A BC
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 1541 VA6RDC 1F AB   K7A          2A WWA
QSO:   7000 PH 2018-06-24 1605 VA6RDC 1F AB   K7LED     6A WWA
END-OF-LOG:

Same time next year?
John Allen, VA6SJA
2018 CAARC Field Day Chairman